CHIFFRATION

Musical notation for musical ear

What is a musical ear?
A musical ear is a general term for the ability to perceive and understand sounds in a precise and analytical way. It consists of several distinct skills, including:
Pitch:
Knowing whether a note is consonant or dissonant, in tune or out of tune.
Recognizing the intervals between notes.

Timbre:
Distinguishing different musical instruments by their sound.
Identifying the nuances of a single sound (vibrato, attack, etc.).

Rhythm:
Perceiving the rhythm of a piece of music.
Understanding the different note values and rests.

Tonality:
Identifying the key of a piece of music.
Recognizing chords and chord progressions.

What is relative musical notation?
Relative musical notation departs from the traditional way of writing notes (C, D, E, etc.) and instead focuses on the function of notes within a scale (tonic, second, third, etc.).

How does relative musical notation work?
Function:
Each note in a scale is assigned a number, from 1 to 7, depending on its position.
For example, 1 represents the tonic, the main note that determines the key of the scale, and 3 represents the third, the note that determines the mode of the scale (major, minor).
The other numbers indicate the interval between the note and the tonic. For example, 4 is the fourth of the tonic, 5 is the fifth, etc.

What are the advantages of relative notation?
Easy transposition:
By using numbers, you can easily transpose a piece of music to a different key.
The intervals between the notes remain the same, only the starting point (the tonic) changes.

Understanding chords:
Relative notation makes it easier to understand the construction of chords. For example, the major triad chord in the key of C major is made up of the degrees 1, 3, and 5.

Improvisation:
Relative notation is a valuable tool for improvisation. By knowing the degrees, you can explore different melodies and harmonies that work well in a given key.
Relative notation may seem a bit complex at first, but with a little practice, it becomes a powerful tool for understanding and analyzing music.

Developing the ear:
Since the names of the notes are the same for all keys, the ear has an easier time memorizing the intervals.

Communication between musicians:
Musicians playing a transposing instrument no longer have difficulty communicating with other instrumentalists. Chords and notes are defined by their relationship to the tonic, which works in any key.
Improved musical understanding:
You can easily identify the different musical elements (melody, harmony) and understand how they fit together.
With relative notation, the "dominant tonic" cadence is always written in the same way (5 1), while in absolute notation it is written in 20 different ways (C G, G D, D F#, etc.).

The universality of numbers:
Numbers are a universal system of numeration used by most countries in the world, and learned and known from a young age.